The Federation of European Union Manufacturers and Suppliers of Ingredients to the Bakery, Confectionery and Patisserie Industries (FEDIMA) has signed a cooperative agreement with Russia’s Food Ingredients Producers Union (FIPU) to exchange information and experience on topics relevant to the industries.

The aim is to achieve improvement for all stakeholders in the various specialist areas.

Harmonization between EU and Russian Federation

Johan Sanders and Tatiana Savenkova signing cooperative agreement

“We hope the agreement between our associations, aimed at information and experience exchange on main issues and aspects of cooperation will contribute to harmonization of the requirements of the EU and the Russian Federation legislation,”​ said Tatiana Savenkova, FIPU president, at the FEDIMA’s annual event, which took place in Athens, Greece, recently.

She noted the exchange will particularly focus on safety and regulation on the use of food ingredients, risk assessment and their circulation on the market; networking between producers and consumers of ingredients for bakery and confectionery production; and the improvement of information in the media regarding the use of ingredients.

Need to be more interconnected

Johan Sanders, president of FEDIMA, highlighted the aspect of growing globalization and the rising need to be more interconnected.

He sees the agreement as “an important opportunity for both, our members, as well as for our Russian counterparts. We should not stop here. We hope to expand our cooperation with our American colleagues.”​

Furthermore, he noted FEDIMA will launch a campaign to celebrate its 50 years to “not only look on what we have achieved but also to look forward on what can be done.”​

FEDIMA is the umbrella association for 13 national associations across EU member states, representing around 200 companies with an approximate turnover of €5bn.

FIPU – founded more than 15 years ago – unites more than 60 companies engaged in production, research, sale and the use of food ingredients used by the food industry in the Russian Federation and the Eurasian Economic Union (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan).